What Is Sin?
The Essence and Root of All Sinning you know that you call much of what unbelievers do “good” — build hospitals,
 Topic: The Power & Effects of Sin
We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith
in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be
justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works
of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16)
The New Perspective says that Paul is not criticizing people who think you
can earn your salvation by law-keeping, because, they say, that’s not what
first century Judaism believed.
Paul means.
“grace and merit did not seem to them to be in contradiction to each other
. . . Grace and works were not considered alternative roads to salvation”
(Justification Reconsidered, 30).
But for Paul, reliance on God’s grace as the way of right standing with God
ruled out all reliance on works as the basis of that right standing
I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated
to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be
justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:3–4)
…what happened when Christ died for sin? What happens in conversion — new
birth and faith and repentance? How do sanctification and perseverance in
faith and holiness come about? What will heaven be like? Will I be safe from
sinning there?
And personally, I felt: Do I know the nature of my own sin? Do have a proper
sense of the power and depth and evil of what I am dealing with in what Paul
calls “indwelling sin” in believers? Do I have a kind of love to Christ and
thankfulness for grace that corresponds to the horrors of what I was rescued
from and to the price the most beautiful and innocent person paid for that
rescue?
What Is the Deepest Root of Sin?
So what I want to do in this message is mainly answer the question
biblically: What is sin? What is the essence and root of all sinning?
Let’s go for deepest root immediately. I want to find out if Westerholm is
right: that we humans are so sinful that apart from the grace of God in
Christ we cannot do any good works at all. It’s a pressing question, because
keep the speed limit, negotiate peace, heal diseases, feed the poor, pay a
fair wage, and on and on. And the Bible itself says that ordinary people
without reference to their faith can do good works.
Rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear
of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive
his approval. (Romans 13:3)
So what did Westerholm mean when he said “human beings are incapable of
doing [good works]” (32)? And why do I agree with him?
Romans 3 “None is righteous, no, not one” (verse 10) and in verse 12, “No
one does good, not even one.”
Paul sees that the essence or the root all sinning is a presence, a force,
in us, part of who we are, called sin. For example, in Roman 7:8 he says,
“Sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all
kinds of covetousness.”
Mga Taga Roma 7:8 ^ Apan ang sala, sa pagkakitag higayon diha sa sugo, nagbuhat sa
tanang matang sa pangibog dinhi sa sulod nako. Kay ang sala mamatay kon mahimulag kini
sa kasugoan.
Covetousness
Strong desire to have that which belongs to another. It is considered to be
a very grievous offense in Scripture. The tenth commandment forbids coveting
anything that belongs to a neighbor, including his house, his wife, his
servants, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to him ( Exod 20:17 ).
Jesus listed covetousness or greed along with many of the sins from within,
including adultery, theft, and murder, which make a person unclean ( Mr 7:22
). Paul reminded the Ephesians that greed or covetousness is equated with
immorality and impurity, so that these must be put away ( 5:3 ). A covetous
or greedy person is an idolator ( 5:5 ) and covetousness is idolatry ( Col
3:5 ). James warns that people kill and covet because they cannot have what
they want ( 4:2 ).
Covetousness, therefore, is basic to the commandments against murder,
adultery, stealing, and lying. Those who accept bribes are coveting, leading
to murder ( Eze 22:12 ). Coveting a neighbor's wife is a form of adultery (
Exod 20:17 ). Achan admitted to coveting a robe and silver and gold, so he
stole them, which was a sin against the Lord ( Jos 7:20-22 ). Gehazi, the
servant of Elisha, coveted the property of Naaman so much that he lied to
get what he wanted from Naaman the leper ( 2 Ki 5:19-25 ) and was struck
with leprosy. Proverbs warns that a covetous person brings trouble to his
family ( 15:27 ). Thus covetousness is the root of all kinds of sins, so
that Jesus gave the warning, "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed" (
Luke 12:15 ).
Now everyone agrees that covetousness is a sin. “Thou shalt not covet”
(Exodus 20:17). It’s a sin in the heart. A heart-sin that might produce
outward sinning like stealing. But notice, Paul says, “Sin produced
covetousness.” Well, covetousness is sin. Right. And so there is a sin
beneath sin that produces sin. That’s what I want to see. I want to know at
the root what is wrong with me. What is at the bottom of all my evils? And
all the evils in the world?
____ Why we can…
Let’s go to Romans 1 and start with verse 18, “The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their
unrighteousness (adikian) suppress the truth.”
Here mankind in general is described as “ungodly and unrighteous.” John says
in 1 John 5:17, “All unrighteousness (adikia) is sin.” So we are talking
about sin here. And Paul choses to talk about it first in terms of
ungodliness and unrighteousness.
And the first thing he says about it is that is that it causes people to
suppress the truth. Sin repels the light of truth and runs to the darkness
of falsehood. Jesus said that we are guilty sinners not because we are
victims of the darkness but because we are lovers of the darkness. John
3:19, “Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather
than the light.” So sin by nature inclines and empowers us to suppress the
truth.
What truth particularly does sin hate? The next verse tells us. Romans 1:19.
The reason we know that men suppress the truth is “Because
what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has
shown it to them.” Knowledge of God is repulsive to sin. So, Paul says,
when this knowledge is suppressed, we have no excuse. Why? Verses 20–21: “So
they are without excuse. For [because] although they knew God, they did not
glorify him as God or give thanks to him.”
So the root of suppressing the knowledge of God is the desire to avoid
glorifying and thanking God. Sin does not love to glorify God. Sin does not
love to thank God. Sin hates glorifying God and thanking God. That’s what
“ungodly” meant in verse 18. In “ungodliness and unrighteousness,” he said,
we suppress sugpuin the truth — namely, the truth that God is infinitely
worthy of glory and thanks from our hearts. Sin hates that and therefore
suppresses that truth.
But sin is not just a hater. Sin is a lover. When the hated truth is
suppressed, the loved lie is embraced. This is described over and over in
the rest of chapter 1. Look at verse 22–23: “Claiming to be wise, they (that
is, those who suppress the truth and have darkened hearts) have became
fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images.”
They don’t just bury truth; they embrace alternative lovers. There’s no
vacuum. When the real God is rejected, images are embraced. They “exchanged
the glory of God for images.” Sin hates the real God and loves his God-
substituting images.
Is this the root of sinning? And if there ever was an age devoted to images,
it is our age. We spend most of our leisure time looking at images. Watch
how Paul describes now the relationship between this exchange, this
suppressing of true God and this embracing of replacement gods—the
relationship between that, and the outpouring of sinning in the world.
Verse 24: “Therefore [because of this exchange in verse 23] God gave them up
in the lusts [desires] of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of
their bodies among themselves.” Because of the exchange of verse 23, God
goes hands off and godlessness and unrighteousness of the human heart goes
unrestrained into sinning.
And lest we missed the connection between verses 23 and 24 (the root of
suppressing God and the shoot of impurity of life), he states it again in
the connection between verse 24 and 25.
Why did “the desires of their hearts run to impurity, to the dishonoring of
their bodies” (verse 24)? Verse 25: “Because they exchanged the truth about
God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the
Creator.” The impurities of active sinning have a root. And the root is
this: Sin hates the truth of God, suppresses it, and exchanges it for what
sin loves and worships. Sin loves to worship and serve the creature not the
Creator. That’s the root of sinning.
And just in case we missed it in the connection between verse 23 and 24 and
in case we missed it in the connection between verse 24 and 25 Paul shows it
again in the connection between verse 25 and 26. Verse 26: “For this reason”
— for what reason? For the reason of verse 25, because we exchanged the
truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature —
for thisreason (now continue in verse 26), “God gave them up to dishonorable
passions.” The flood of dishonorable passions in the world, with all their
behaviors, has root. And the root is that sin hates the truth about God and
worships, serves, loves God-substitutes.
And, please forgive Paul, if you think he is overdoing it — I said he probes
vigorously and forcefully down into the root of depravity beneath our
sinning. But he does it here one more time — for a fourth time (not only the
connection between verse 23 and 24, and 24 and 25, and 25 and 26) but now
look at verse 28. “And since (or “just as”) they did not see fit [or did not
approve, edokimasan] to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a
debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”
“They did not see fit to acknowledge God,” is, I think, a bland translation
that would be more forcefully rendered, “They did not approve to have God in
their knowledge.” The truth of God comes to them from every direction and
they feel, “I don’t approve of you! I don’t want you. I don’t like you. I
will not let you in as part of my knowledge.” And then comes the connection
that we have seen four times now: So, “God gave them up to a debased mind to
do what ought not to be done.”
Notice two crucial terms: because they prefer lies to truth (verse 25) and
images to God (verse 23), therefore God hands them over to “a debased mind.”
Another good translation of debased would be depraved. So if you are ever
wondering: Where does that idea of human depravity come from, here is one
answer. Without redeeming grace through Jesus Christ, we are handed over to
a mental depravity that does not want God.
And the second crucial term to notice in verse 28 is “to do what ought not
to be done.” “God gave them up to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be
done.” This depravity that does not want God does things that ought not to
be done. In other words the root of sinful action is a sinful nature. And
the bottom of the sinfulness of the sinful nature is: We don’t like the true
and living God. We suppress truth that leads to him. We exchange his glory
for images. We disapprove of having him in our knowledge. We have a deep,
unshakeable, compelling preference for other things rather than God. That is
the bottom.
So, when we get to the end of Paul’s analysis and indictment of our
condition and he starts to turn to the great work of God to save us from our
sin and from his wrath against our sin, we are not surprised that we would
sum it up with these words in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God.” The word for “fall short” is literally “lack”
(husterountai). What does this mean?
Well, if you come short of something you lack it. You don’t have it. But you
can lack, or come short of, or not have, something in more than one way. So
here we come short of or lack the glory of God. Does that mean: Come short
of being glorious with the glory of God? Or does it mean come short of
having God’s glory as our supreme treasure — our highest perspective?
Now we know from Romans 8:17 that if we have the glory of God as our supreme
treasure, we will be glorified with the glory of God. But what is meant
here? What’s the focus of Romans 3:23? And my answer is: He means that all
have sinned, that is all have come short of embracing God as our supreme
treasure. And the reason I think that’s what he means is because that is
what he has said at least four times leading to this conclusion.
Romans 1:18, we suppress the truth about God. Romans 1:21, we don’t glorify
him or thank him. Romans 1:23, we exchange his glory for images. Romans
1:25, we exchange the truth about God for a lie. We worship — we stand in
awe of what God made, not God. Romans 1:28, we disapprove of having the true
God in our knowledge. We don’t want him. We prefer others things and other
persons more than God. He is not our supreme treasure. We have come short of
this: knowing, cherishing, prizing, loving, treasuring God above all things.
That is the essence of our sinful condition and that is the root of all
sinful action. This is the bottom.
A Definition of Sin
So my definition of sinning is: Sinning is any feeling or thought or speech
or action that comes from a heart that does not treasure God over all other
things. And the bottom of sin, the root of all sinning, is such a heart — a
heart that prefers anything above God, a heart that does not treasure God
over all other person and all other things. Or, as I once tried to express
it in a message years ago. What is sin? Sin is:
 The glory of God not honored.
 The holiness of God not reverenced.
 The greatness of God not admired.
 The power of God not praised.
 The truth of God not sought.
 The wisdom of God not esteemed.
 The beauty of God not treasured.
 The goodness of God not savored.
 The faithfulness of God not trusted.
 The promises of God not believed.
 The commandments of God not obeyed.
 The justice of God not respected.
 The wrath of God not feared.
 The grace of God not cherished.
 The presence of God not prized.
 The person of God not loved.
Why is it that people can become emotionally and morally indignant over
poverty and exploitation and prejudice and abortion and the infractions of
religious liberty and the manifold injustices of man against man, and yet
feel little, or no, remorse or indignation or outrage that God is
disregarded, disbelieved, disobeyed, dishonored, and thus belittled, by
millions and millions of people in the world? And the answer is: sin. And
that is the ultimate outrage of the universe.
Once Paul has made clear what the essence or root of sin is in Romans 1–3,
he now makes clear in the following chapters the magnitude of its power in
us. He speaks of sin reigning like a king in death (5:21), holding dominion
like a Lord (6:14), enslaving like a slavemaster (6:6, 16f, 20), to whom we
have been sold (7:14), as a force that produces other sins (7:8), as
a power that seizes the law and kills (7:11), as a hostile
occupying tenant that dwells in us (7:17, 20), and a law that takes us
captive (7:23). And this powerful presence in us, defines us until we are
born again.
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
is spirit” (John 3:6). And Paul adds, “Nothing good dwells in me, that is,
in my flesh” (Romans 7:18). What we are apart from new birth, new creation
by the Spirit of God because Christ, is the embodiment of resistance to
God. Romans 8:7, “The mind of flesh is hostile to God, for it does not
submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.” Because it doesn’t want to. We
disapprove of God as supreme treasure. We prefer other things.
So you may lay to rest forever the notion that your sin is mainly what you
do or don’t do. It’s not mainly what you do. It is mainly who you are—until
you are a new creature in Christ. And even then, for us who are born of God,
it is an ever-present, indwelling enemy to be put to death every day by the
Spirit (Romans 8:13).
Before Christ, sin is not an alien power. Sin is our preference for anything
over God. Sin is our disapproval of God. Sin is our exchange of his glory
for substitutes. Sin is our suppression of the truth of God. Sin
is our heart’s hostility to God. It is who we are to the bottom of our
hearts. Until Christ.
So can such sinners do good works — build hospitals, keep the speed limit,
negotiate peace, heal diseases, feed the poor, pay a fair wage? And of
course the answer from one angle is yes.
Rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear
of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive
his approval. (Romans 13:3)
So what did Westerholm mean when he said “human beings are incapable of
doing [good works]” (p. 32)? Was he just wrong?
No. Because there is another angle from which to look.
Another biblical angle.
The other angle starts in Romans 3:10, 12, “None is righteous, no, not one;
. . . no one does good, not even one.” From this angle, without Christ we
cannot do good. The writer to the Hebrews puts it like this: “Without faith
it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). And Paul puts it like this:
“Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23).
In other words, the reason some deeds of unbelievers are called “good” in
the New Testament is because in the ordinary use of language we sometimes
describe deeds according to ordinary human standards. Committing adultery is
bad. Not committing adultery is good.
But there is another angle. If not committing adultery comes from a heart
that has no love for God and treasures many things more than God, then that
act of chastity is not an expression of love to God. It’s not a way of
expressing his value. And so it is a dishonor to God. He is neglected,
ignored, not a decisive factor, and in that sense the fruit of that heart is
not good. Westerholm put it like this: “Where God is not honored,
something basic is awry, spoiling even what would otherwise be good”
(48). Present example: _________Even if you give as if it’s for the Lord
What this calls for is a radical God-centeredness in the way you think about
everything. If God is not central and supreme. If his honor and glory are
not uppermost in your affections, then God-ignoring kindness, God-ignoring,
truth-telling, God-ignoring generosity will not be seen by you as evil. You
won’t have a category for that. That only makes sense if God’s glory is the
all-defining, all-pervasive good in the universe.
Paul had to undergo a massive reorientation of his mind when he was
converted — a reorientation concerning God and sin and most everything else.
He said in Philippians 3:6-8 that before he was a Christ he was “blameless
in the law.” That included many good deeds, and the avoidance of much evil.
And after he became a Christian, he said, “But whatever gain I had, I
counted as loss for the sake of Christ. . . . and count them as refuse, in
order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). In other words, unless all
those good deeds come from faith in Christ, they are refuse and loss. That
was his new orientation.
The reason Paul says that “whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23)
is that faith is a receiving of God in Christ as our Savior, and Lord, and
supreme Treasure. Which means that actions which don’t come from faith,
don’t come from treasuring God over all things. And that’s what sin is — not
treasuring God above all things, preferring anything more than God.
Grace Becomes Sweeter
So there I am sitting in my chair in Knoxville, Tennessee last summer,
realizing as never before the horrible and glorious truth that the reason my
justification, my right standing with God, cannot be founded on 99.99% grace
and .01% good works is that there are no truly good works in those who are
not yet justified. They don’t exist, and have never existed since the fall.
The question for the unbeliever is NOT, Can you do enough good works to
outweigh your bad works? The question is, can you do one good work and
contribute that as part of the basis of your acceptance with God? And the
answer is no. “No one does good. Not even one” (Romans 3:12).
It was a weighty moment of realization. And justification by grace alone
through faith alone on the basis of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone
has never been more sweet. I pray that will be true for you.
We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith
in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be
justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works
of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16)
John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and
chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as
pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author
of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian
Hedonist, and most recently Expository Exultation: Christian Preaching as
Worship.